National Pool

If it’s raining outside or the surf is up head indoors for a gentle swim in the best swimming pool Swansea has to offer. Wales’ only 50-metre Olympic pool is set back from the beach of Swansea Bay. The National Pool boasts 8 lanes, has a 2-metre depth, and seating for up to 1,100 spectators.

The modern, glossy building has all the latest equipment and facilities, with a café and a smaller 25-metre pool next to the main one where children over the age of 8 can swim unattended.

Top-level coaching, sports science and physiotherapy services sit alongside state-of-the-art facilities. The new pool was built as part of Wales’ quest to develop future aquatic champions and is the headquarters of Swim Wales.  Some swimmers used the pool to train for the London Olympic Games in 2012.

The pool opened in 2003. It was a long-awaited project after the closure of Cardiff’s Empire Pool in 1999 (to make way for the Millenium Stadium) which left the country without a national Olympic-sized pool. There was some political tussling over the location of the new pool, and Swansea won. Instead of Wales’ swimmers having to travel to England they could now practice closer to home.

The pool was funded by the Sport Council for Wales, Swansea Council and Swansea University. For more information on the National Pool please see the official Wales National Pool Swansea website.

Getting to the Wales National Pool Swansea from Swansea Valley Holiday Cottages

(i) By car. Follow signs for Swansea from Pontardawe. When you reach the city, follow signs for Singleton Hospital on the A4067. Following signs for Singleton Hospital, turn right into Sketty Lane A4216 at the traffic lights. Turn left at the first set of traffic lights into the Wales National Pool Swansea car park.

The population of Swansea is 223,301 making it Wales’s second largest city.

The Vikings named the area Sveins Ey (Swein’s Island), probably referring to the sandbank in the mouth of the river. Over the years this became Swansea. It’s Welsh name is Abertawe which means ‘mouth of the river Tawe’.
Our self catering Welsh holiday cottages are a perfect base from which to take in the tourist attractions of Swansea, Wales’s second city.